Tea was introduced into England during the Cromwellian period C 1655 but it was not popular until the beginning of Charles II reign in 1660 when his wife Catherine of Braganza made it fashionable .
Despite the increasing use of tea there was no special container for keeping it in until the early eighteenth century.It was in that period c1705 when the first tea caddies were made .The word caddy comes from the Malay word ’Kati’ which was a unit of weight equal to one and a third English pounds.
The earliest tea was very expensive and in 1720 The East India Company’s tea cost 24 shillings a pound (about £500 pounds today). The earliest silver caddies are small and of plain rectangular form with a pull off cap and sometimes a removable base to assist filling. By the 1730/40s the variety of caddies increased enormously and they were often made in pairs one for black one for green tea with another covered bowl or caddy for sugar.All three together are quite rare today as they have often been split up.
In the 1770’s and 80’s slightly larger caddies , in a variety of styles, appeared and they were fitted with locks to stop the servants stealing the precious teas . By the 1810 they tended to be made without locks as tea had become much cheaper.
At William Walter Antiques we have an extensive selection of tea caddies from the early eighteenth century right up to the twentieth century in a great variety of styles.
